A very interesting naval warfare game

[Perturabo]

I have recently learned about Dreadnoughts by Turcan Research. It's an old game - 19 years old but has a very innovative approach to command & control - orders are given by signals or by wireless. There's a signal officer on board that does the communication.
For example, player gives an order to signal to another ship to send its damage report, there's a confirmation/lack of confirmation in the same turn and a response in next turn (or a message that the communication officer tries to contact again).

It's possible to lose sight of a friendly ships, to move flag from one ship to another (in right conditions), be unable to communicate with a ship, etc.

It's pretty engaging and immersive. Additionally, it's possible to write commands (besides picking them from a menu) which adds to immersion. It doesn't have a point and click command map, which makes it more realistic than a typical wargame.

I just mopped the floor with the Japanese in the battle of Yalu River by good manoeuvring.

[Terminus]

You forgot to add that it's on the AMIGA!!! And it looks like an arse made with LEGOs.

[Perturabo]

I just managed to hunt down a full boxed version on eBay. I also got two other games by that developer - Peter Turcan. Apparently all of them have a command & control system with messengers and stuff.

Also, I like the graphics in the game. They are simple high-res (640-480) polygons without textures. Here are some screenshots:


Sighting report at the beginning of the game.


Land.


Giving an order.



Map.


Combat.

[mytony]

not like war

[Terminus]

Fuck off, spambot.

[Hanal]

Reported and on the run....

[a7v]

I still have the PC-Version of this game. One great thing was, that you could make your own ships by changing the ship data that were saved in a text file. It used a simple code for guns, bridges , funnels etc. I made some superheavy German battleships there[;)].
His landbattles (Waterloo, Borodino, Austerlitz) also had a very interesting way to give orders, as mentioned above. It used a parser to give commands to subordinates who then could follow these orders or not. The orders were forwarded by riding messengers who could be killed or captured. This sytem gave you some idea about the problems in a battle.
 
Some examples of commands:
 
Davout at 12:30pm order Boursier to move to Kobelnitz
Davout order Friant to defend the hill 1/2 mile NE of Pratzen
Bernadotte send me your battlereport
All corps change your strategy to retreat and many more...
 
For its day it was a very sophisticated game concept.
 
Sincerely
 
Rainer
 

[Perturabo]

I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only person that has played that game[:)].

ORIGINAL: A7V_U

I still have the PC-Version of this game. One great thing was, that you could make your own ships by changing the ship data that were saved in a text file. It used a simple code for guns, bridges , funnels etc. I made some superheavy German battleships there[;)].

I would probably make some ironclads. One thing that this game misses for me is some kind of a scenario generator. Historical scenarios are too few to offer long replayablity.

ORIGINAL: A7V_U

For its day it was a very sophisticated game concept.

I wouldn't say that it was a very sophisticated game concept for its day. There are lots of interesting concepts in old games that didn't make it into other games or became a favourite concept of a single company/developer.
Today we have much more advanced technology and such a simulation of command and control is still very rare..

[ETF]

Try JUTLAND by storm studios. 10/10 IMHO.

[Perturabo]

ORIGINAL: ETF

Try JUTLAND by storm studios. 10/10 IMHO.

Does it have a good simulation of command & control?

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[JAMiAM]

ORIGINAL: Perturabo

ORIGINAL: ETF

Try JUTLAND by storm studios. 10/10 IMHO.

Does it have a good simulation of command & control?

Yeah, the DRM it uses is so bad, they Command & Control whether you can play 'your' game, or not...[:D]

[Perturabo]

That's the famous "STORMPOWERED!" stuff that they were advertising?

[sabre1]

Action Stations was the best period, but I have never seen it available anywhere for DL.

[HighwayStar]

I'll second that! And third it! Action Stations still is the best tactical naval surface warfare game ever.

[Perturabo]

Why was it the best? Also, how do you know that it was the best? Did you play all the tactical naval surface games ever released?

[sabre1]

It was a DOS game. Graphics were much less than the game you like. Things I remeber was laying smoke, shooting star shells at night, flooding compartments, and other mechanical damages and breakdowns. It was very extensive in it's scope, except for graphics. I have not seen a game since Action Stations that covered everything it did. I talked with the developer many times over the phone when the game came out. A real gentleman, with customer care like you will never see again, except for maybe Ron Dockal, who is also the consummate gentleman.

I know memory fades, but I doubt you will find a single person who ever played Action Stations tell you it was not the best naval simulation ever to come out. It did not have a campaign mode IIRC.

"Action Stations is a Naval Surface Combat Tactical Simulation covering the years 1922-1945. The game treats thoroughly in detail smoke, starshells, flares, searchlights, radar, shore batteries, stack gasses, aircraft recce and spotting, burning oil slicks, capsized hulks, weather and more. Ship classes go from PT Boats to Battleships and represent the U.S., German, British, Italian, French, Japanese, Dutch and Russian Fleets. Many "design only" classes included. In addition to 30 packaged scenarios, the build scenario feature allows you to generate an infinite number of new situations."

[Perturabo]

Does it include simulation of C&C?

[sabre1]

Sheeesh, I don't remember that. I just remember that when it came out, it was the most detailed naval simulation around.

I haven't seen any naval sim since come close to the detail, it was information overload, and it wasn't graphically presented. The closest game I can think of currenlty produced would be Aurora, a 4x space game, that will make you eyes bleed with data.

[Perturabo]

Isn't information overload a bit unrealistic?